may possess relative to this novel, or new-revived (I don't know which) operation; as it bids fair, according to what we have lately heard from him, to supersede Mr. Sewell's bisection of the nerves. -At all times happy to hear from VETERINARIUS, but just now more anxious, for Mr. Dicks' further enquiry.-I remain, Mr. Editor, yours truly, V. S.

SPORTING QUERY, AND REMARKS.

To the Editor of the Sporting Magazine. SIR,

Really cannot say how long the

term Levanter has been in use upon the turf, or whether throughout all my day, which has been somewhat long, or not; but I never yet could learn its etimology, or who was its introductor. I scarcely need give its meaning, since that is almost universally known in this country, where a man making bets on the turf, receiving his winnings, and making himself scarce when fortune frowns on him, is said to levant. Information on this point would be an agreeable contribution to our common knowledge box.

From one kind of pastime to another-namely to that in which a ring of jolly fellows assemble, to witness with high glee, two of their peers stripped to that first shirt which mother nature gave them, woven without seam, pomelling each other black and blue, darkening daylights, fracturing probosces, cross-buttocking, hugging, giving and taking falls, and all from motives of interest, fun, or fellowship. On this delectable sport, being an old amateur, I shall make two remarks. In a late trial, in which the party arraigned had accidentally killed his antagonist in

a pugilistic rencontre, the judge seemed desirous to rule that, a combatant striking twice on a part of the body, where a blow might be mortal, would subject himself to be tried for murder. With all my respect for the bench, and for the learned individual in question, my view of the matter compels me to demur to such a rule. It would seem in fact, to go the length of putting an end to these contests, which, however much abused, by being joined with the abomination of cruel inflictions on brute animals, are really and essentially the glory of Britain. A man must strike

wherever he can find a place above the waistband; nor can he, in the hurry of the fray, take up his attention in considering whether he have before striken in this or that place, or not; and moreover there are several places, in which a well and powerfully directed blow may be mortal-the pit of the stomach, the frontal suture, the temples, or the neck. Boxing is a voluntary combat, in which the competitors professedly and bravely risk life and limb; and in such, it is viewed, as a national light.

My second remark is on a practice in the ring, which has neither bravery, humanity, nor fairness, to recommend it; but purely the sordid letch of pelf-in truth and fact, it is actually foul play; and were I a good bit of mutton, and had any thing of a fist joined to my arm, I should be extremely apt, in the paroxysm of resentment, to remove two or three of the eye-teeth of the heartless wretch who should practice it on a friend of mine in distress-I allude to the unmanly exclamations used to the combatant who appears pinched, and to have the worst of the battle, in order to dishearten and disable him

as, a shutter-an hospital-one more blow!-leave off, I say, as a friend! and the like. Nothing of this really foul play should be allowed at a British boxing-match.

PUGIL.

For the Sporting Magazine. APPALLING SPECIMEN OF GALLIC ANTE-REVOLUTIONAL LEGAL JUSTICE.

IN the year 1674, a young and beautiful country girl was hired as a servant, by a gentleman of Paris, whose character, the case too often in great cities, was tainted with more than ordinary depravity. He was smitten with the charms of his interesting servant, and made use of every art for her seduction. But although a Frenchwoman, she was by nature virtuous, and firmly rejected all his offers. What a generous heart would have regarded with the highest esteem, served only to irritate and breed revenge in the mind of this profligate master; who, finding all his seductive arts ineffectual, formed the most horrible plan of revenge that could enter into the most debased and corrupted human mind. He secretly conveyed some of his own goods into the trunk of this unfortunate girl. They were marked with his name. He then exclaims he is robbed-sends for a commissary, and makes his deposition to the robbery in form. The girl's trunk being opened, the goods were discovered which he had sworn to have lost. The poor defenceless creature was immediately imprisoned, her tears were her only defence, and all her answers to the judicial interrogatories, were-indeed I am innocent. With horror and astonishment, it might be said, VOL. IX. N. S.-No. 49.

con

The innocent maid was demned to be hanged; but the executioner being but a tyro and intimidated, the operation was imperfectly performed. A surgeon purchased the body, and it was removed to his house. The weather being warm and unfavourable, the anatomist was resolved to commence his operation the same evening; but on approaching the body with his dissecting-knife, he plainly perceived some existing warmth: he started with affright, his heart leapt in his bosom, he involuntarily dropped his scalpel, and his first thoughts were any other than those of continuing his meditated operation. He immediately placed his late anatomical subject, but now patient, in a bed, with the generous resolve to use every possible exertion for the recovery of the unfortunate. -His generous endeavours proved successful. He had sent for a priest, in whose experience and discretion he could confide, not only in order to consult him on this strange event, but to be a witness of the occurrence.

At the moment the unfortunate girl opened her eyes, she thought herself still in the other world; and perceiving the figure of the priest, an aged and venerable man, such a figure, in fact, as is commonly used to represent the Deity, she exclaimed, addressing herself to the priest, whom she imagined to be God himself," O, eternal D

Father, thou knowest my innocence; have pity on me!" It was some time before she could be persuaded she was not dead, and in the presence of the Almighty. Could any thing be more expressive or affecting than the exclamation of an innocent soul, addressed to Him, whom she imagined to be her Supreme Judge? Added to the influence of her beauty, how forcibly must this singular scene have interested the feelings of the two spectators! What a subject for a painter-what a theme for the philosopher-what an awful lesson to the judge!

The humane reader would rejoice, perhaps expect to hear, that the iniquitous sentence had been reversed, that the perjured assassin had been duly punished, and that some signal compensation had been rendered to injured innocence. Alas, nothing of that was the case, although the horrible perversion of justice had become public in the journals of Paris, and in consequence circulated throughout Europe. The guilty wretch remained unnoticed by the tribunals and unpunished. He was indeed loaded with execrations in the vicinity where he resided, and where his infamy became known; but in an immense capital like Paris, sunken in corruption, vice, and universal slavery, the parent of crime, the affair was soon worn out of memory, and the monster escaped, although ultimately, as will appear in the sequel, he suffered that violent death justly, which he had inflicted with the foulest injustice.

The maid was restored to life, and soon after recovered from the illusions of her troubled imagination.

She was removed in the night-time from the house of the surgeon, both for her own safety

and his, to the residence of one of his relations, in a village at some distance, where she remained until her unfortunate affair was forgotten, and her apprehensions, extremely vivid and alarming for a time, had also subsided. An eminent example of the vicissitudes of fortune in this mortal life, her reward was now to come, and it was decreed to continue to her latest period of existence. Pity melts the mind to love,' and such was its effect upon the heart of the surgeon, who was a young man, and who, influenced by the fair and innocent character of his protegée, as well as by her eminent personal attractions, made her his wife within twelve months from the date of her resurrection. The match proved most fortunate, and both survived until a late period of the revolution.

Now comes the turn of the legal murderer. During the reign of terror and Robespierre, this person, either through the malice of some enemy, or from actual intelligence, was apprehended en soupcon d'etre soupçonner, that is, on suspicion of being suspected of holding intelligence with the satellites of Pitt. Our surgeon was then a member of the Municipality, and although both himself and his wife too well remembered the criminal, yet believing him to be innocent on this occasion, they both, most generously and heroically, exerted themselves to save him, and would have succeeded, as the husband was become a man of some influence in the Republic, but for the fact announced by a new witness, that the accused had lately arrived from London. This being held sufficient proof of his guilt-his head fell, in almost the same hour, beneath the axe of the guillotine, 'the national razor ;' and

his original guilt having spread abroad from the intervention of the surgeon, his head was reserved among the numbers which fell, rolled through the streets and kennels of Paris by the poissardes and mob, treated with a thousand indignities, and finally cast to the dogs!

THE PUGILISTIC RING. BATTLE BETWEEN CURTIS AND LENNEY, FOR 25 GUINEAS A-SIDE, AT MOULSEY HURST.

ON Monday, October 22, the above picturesque spot, so much the admiration of the fancy, was again the scene of action. The amateurs were not so numerous as upon some former occasions; but several first-rate swells, and most of the out-and-out patrons of boxing, were present. At one o'clock Curtis, in a new white upper tog, that would have given a sporting appearance to a pink of Regent-street, with a prime yellowman round his squeeze, and a rum white topper on his nob, appeared arm-in-arm with the President of the Daffies, and threw his castor in the ring; Lenney showed afterwards equally well rigged-out, with a blue silk-fogle on his neck, supported by the Gas-light Man, and his old opponent, the Sprig of Myrtle, and repeated the token of defiance with the utmost confidence. The men soon prepared for action; Spring and Hickman were the seconds for Lenney, and Belcher and Harmer for Curtis. The odds within the last two or three days, had changed considerably in favour of Lenney, on whom 5 to 4 was laid. The colours were tied to the stakes by Spring and the President, who observed to the former, "I'll bet you a daffy that I take them down.'

ROUNDS.

1. The condition of Curtis was similar to the finest race-horse: blood and bone were conspicuous, and he appeared as confident as if the battle had been over. Lenney was equally fine; and he commenced the fight with the most determined resolution of being declared the conqueror. Curtis was in no hurry to make play; and Lenney was also on his guard. After some little manoeuvring, Curtis let fly on the nob of his opponent, without any return. This hit operated as a sort of stopper, and some little sparring occurred. Lenney endeavoured to go to work, and some blows were exchanged. The science displayed by Curtis was fine in the extreme, and he planted two tremendous facers, right and left, which floored Lenney on his face, and the claret trickled down his cheek.-(Loud shouting, and 2 to 1 all round the ring.)

2. Lenney came to the scratch with a severe cut under his right eye. Curtis planted a severe body hit without any return. He also put in two severe facers. It was evident that Lenney could not protect his face from the out-fighting of his opponent, and to go in was equally dangerous. Curtis kept nobbing his man, and getting away with the utmost ease. In closing, Lenney was fibbed down, and Curtis fell upon him.-(Thunders of applause; and " you're a pretty boy, Curtis !")

3. This was a short round; a close took place, and the fibbing tactics ensued, till Lenney went down.

4. The coolness of Curtis was the theme of the ring; he measured his distances with the accuracy of a carpenter, and nobbed his opponent with the severity of a

hammerman at an anvil. Lenney could make no impression on the mode adopted by Curtis; the latter followed Lenney up to the ropes, and with his right hand he planted such a tremendous facer that it was heard all over the ring. In the struggle for the throw,. as both of the combatants were hanging on the ropes, Curtis's nose touched them, as they both came to the ground.

5. Lenney came up like a game cock to the scratch; but his nob had undergone a strange alteration. Some exchanges occurred, when Curtis, by a dreadful right-handed blow, sent down his adversary like a shot. Three to one.

6,7,8. Lenney stopped several blows with considerable skill; but his head was completely at the service of his opponent. Oliver made so sure of the event, that he asked if any gentleman would oblige him by taking ten to two.

9, 10. The fine fighting of Curtis now rendered the battle quite safe to him; so much so, that he could take his time about it without any thing like danger. Curtis astonished the ring by his execution, as well as his science he put in so tremendous a blow on Lenney's mouth, that his ivories were on the chatter like dice in a box, and he felt it so seriously that his left arm dropped for an instant.

11, 12. Lenney received so much punishment about the nob that he was quite groggy.-Twenty to 1 were offered.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17. All these rounds were nearly similar to the preceding ones: "Go to work, Curtis, and you will finish it in a round or two." Any odds.

18 to 29 and last. Lenney was game to the back bone; but he had not a shadow of chance; and

he ought to have been taken away for several rounds previous to the last. He was hit out of time; and remained in a state of stupor for a short period. It occupied thirtyeight minutes and a half.

REMARKS.-A more elegant, or scientific fighter than Curtis is not to be met with in the prize ring. He could have won it in half the time if he had wished it. But he was determined not to give half a chance away; and, therefore, no rally took place in the battle. Curtis also proved the strongest man; and he left the ring without a scratch upon his face; but his hands were much bruised from the severe punishment he had administered to his opponent. Lenney was carried out of the ring, and put to bed.

Martin appeared, and threw up his hat, publicly challenging Randall for 3001. a-side, and also Turner for 2001. a-side; in case the former boxer did not accept of it. In a few minutes afterwards, Josh. Hudson offered to fight Martin for 2001. a-side in the course of six weeks.

A subscription purse was made up for young Pie-Crust, (who defeated the Gypsey's brother in such prime style, after O'Leary's fight) and a novice of the name of Smith, from Herefordshire. Spring and Dolly Smith seconded the latter; and young Pie-Crust was handled by Scroggins and Donnel. This battle entertained the amateurs for forty-eight minutes; and seventytwo rounds were fought. PieCrust only weighs seven stone and a half; but his courage and activity are equal to a man of six foot high. He is also a hard hitter, and possesses a good knowledge of pugilism. The victory was decided in his favour; but he fell down several times without a blow. Smith